Software | Information | Community

July 2011

Software

Code First Migrations: August 2011 CTP Released – The ADO.NET Entity Framework Team announce the release of the August 2011 CTP (first CTP) of Entity Framework Code First Migrations. This library adds support for migrating the database schema from one model setup to a later version of the same model. This early CTP requires the Entity Framework 4.1 Update 1, As is usual with CTP release, the team are very interested in your feedback.

Announcing the Windows Azure AppFabric July release – The Windows Azure AppFabric Team announced the release of their July update and enhancements to the Windows Azure AppFabric Management Portal and the Access Control service, including improved localisation for the Management Portal, support for Access Control rules with 2 input claims, UTF-8 support for O-Auth and the removal of ACS quotas on configuration data.

Simple way of null parameter validation – Ishtiyaq Sheikh shares a simple helper extension method to make writing some of the common parameter validation code that appears in lots of methods shorter and simpler.

Preprocessor? .NET don’t need no stinkin’ preprocessor! – David Anson also is looking at parameter and other variable validation using Debug.Assert, showing its default use, discussing how the message often duplicates the expression being asserted upon and shares an custom extension of the Debug.Assert which takes away this duplication using expression trees.

MEF Features – with Examples – Mahadesh Mahalingappa digs into a number of the key features of the Managed Extensibility Framework, looking at the background to the feature and illustrating with examples of each.

Windows Phone Mango Feature Videos – Mike Ormond highlights a series of videos from the Windows Phone team where the people responsible for each of the new features discusses their feature and its use.

Community

NxtGenUG – Event: .Net Minimalist Web Dev – The Manchester / Warrington chapter of the NxtGenUG welcome Mark Rendle on Wednesday 17th August for a session looking at two lightweight alternative frameworks on the .NET platform, Simple.Data for data access and Nancy for a Sinatra like web framework

Coding for PowerShell – DevEvening – The DevEvening User Group in Woking welcome Jimmy Skowronski for a session exploring PowerShell development, from the basics upwards on Wednesday 31st August

Software

Another Helping of Mango for Devs – Hot on the heels of the Windows Phone Mango RTM release, the Windows Phone Developer Team announce a refresh of the developer tools entitled ‘Windows Phone SDK 7.1 “Beta 2 Refresh”’, along with the news that any devices which devs have already upgraded to Mango will be able to be updated to build 7712, the final pre-release build of Mango

The Top 5 .NET Memory Management Misconceptions – Clive Tong takes a detailed look at 5 of the most common .NET Memory Management myths, exploring what the garbage collector does, memory leaks, how different types of objects are treated, and the use of performance counters to monitor the GC

HTML5 Drag and Drop in IE10 PPB2 – Sharon Newman of the Internet Explorer Team discusses the support for HTML5 Drag and Drop in Internet Explorer 10 preview 2, discussing its implementation in a magnetic poetry IE Test Drive sample.

WCF Web API with Web Activator package – Thang Chung discusses the use of the Web Activator NuGet package with the WCF Web API library to provide the startup hooks needed to ensure that your integrations with IOC are hooked up correctly.

Speech Recognition (Page 1 of 2) – The folks over at BlackWasp take a look at the Speech Recognition support provided in XP SP3 and later windows releases which can easily be consumed by .NET 3.0 and later allowing you to use speech recognition in your own applications.

Community

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper Belfast – 1 Oct 2011 – The DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper team announce the opening of the call for speakers for the DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper event to be held in Belfast at the University of Ulster on Saturday 1st October. If you are interested in delivering a talk at this event get your proposal in now.

LDNUG AUG10: Modelling and Waiting – The London DotNet User Group welcome Liam Westley for a session on the Async CTP and C#5, along with Ian Cooper for a session entitled ‘Introduction to DDD Part 1 – Modeling’ exploring Domain Driven Design techniques for modeling a business domain. The event is to be held on Wednesday 10th August at EMC Consulting in London.

Software

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 is Available Today – Jason Zander announces the availability of Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011, the first release of this new developer product. Currently the release is available to MSDN subscribers, with General Availability coming on Thursday, when a 90 day trial will be made available

LightSwitch 2011 is Here! No More Excuses! – Steven Lange also highlights the release, sharing a video which introduces the LightSwitch product and also highlights in detail some of the starter kits and other resources.

Windows Phone "Mango" Released to Manufacturing – The Windows Phone Blog announces the Release To Manufacturing of the Windows Phone Mango Operating System update, meaning that device manufacturers are now busy working on the integration with their phones and networks.

EF 4.1 Update 1 Released – The ADO.NET Entity Framework Team announce an update release to Entity Framework 4.1 (Code First) which brings some bug fixes and further support for design time tools. The update can be obtained either as a standalone download installer, or via NuGet.

Using the Features of ASP.NET MVC 3 Futures – Imran Baloch takes a look at some of the features included in the ASP.NET MVC Futures library, a library which builds upon the ASP.NET MVC 3 release and includes things which may become a part of the ASP.NET MVC project in the future.

JSON.NET Custom Converters – A Quick Tour – David Hoerster takes a look at implementing a custom convertor for the JSON.NET library, allowing you to more finely control the serialisation and deserialisation of types to and from JSON.

Community

DDD North – Saturday 8th October 2011 – Session Submission Open! – Andrew Westgarth announces the opening of session submissions for the first DDD event in the North of England. The event, to be held on Saturday 8th October at the University of Sunderland, follows the usual UK Community DeveleloperDeveloperDeveloper format the agenda being chosen by the community for the community. If you are interested in speaking at the event get your submission in now.